storyboarding part II

I've sat through the credits of a number of video games in order to watch a final section not available until the game was finished. (No, I don't play them but I live with a fairly skillful gamer.) One thing I've noticed is that at the end of video games or even very short animations there are a whole host of people named who contributed to the end result. The short animations usually have a limited list of contributors as would be expected with a film that lasts five minutes or less, but it's remarkable that these things are rarely done by just one person. However, studio productions of full length movie cartoons, Studio Ghibli, for instance, will list more artists than actors in an average live action major film. It always amazes me.

Now I'm involved in my own small scale production of drawing and writing a story I'd like to read and can see for myself just how complicated the process can be. Should I draw and paint a few highly detailed pictures and write the rest or should I plan on letting more and simpler pictures tell the story? So far I'm still compiling sketches that aren't in much of a linear order but you'll see a few ideas are developing. I spent an afternoon this week writing out a plot summary that may have a climax that's too overblown for the intended length of the tale, meaning I'd have to add much more to the middle. I'm not sure I want to write an illustrated novel either, so for the moment my character is standing at a gate wondering about that next step.

Back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, here's another little movie I found:



It's not what we have so much as what we make of what we have.
♡

storyboarding

For the past few weeks I've been entertaining the idea of writing a fictional story but rather than sitting down with pen and paper or a word processing program my first tendency has been to open my sketchbook. Although there are many things involved in telling about any adventure or quest it seems to me that two things are important at the beginning. The first is that you know who your main characters are and the second is that you explore the place before they get there. I've been taking tiny steps to develop a couple of characters - well, one to start off with and this is her. The trick for me will be to keep her recognizable from multiple angles. I hope you'll excuse me not telling you the plot if I explain it isn't very clear to me yet but I promise to post more sketches as the story progresses. It might get long and if it does I rather expect there'll be more writing than pictures. Even though I love Japanese manga I doubt my ability to draw pictures by the hundreds.

Meanwhile, in case you need entertainment right now, here's a very sweet little story about a young astronomer who lives in a world without stars:


Light up from Light up on Vimeo.


Wish me luck with the process. I have a feeling that telling you I'm doing it might just keep me on track.

♡

an unexpected barque

I thought you might like to see the first of the Tall Ships to arrive in Halifax Harbour this year. It's the Simón Bolívar, a naval training barque from Venezuela. We just happened to see her parked (oops, moored) next to the Murphy's Restaurant when one of our infrequent walks downtown took us to the commercial waterfront. Best of all was being welcomed aboard at no charge and without having to wait in a long line of the tourists and visitors who'll surely be here when the main fleet arrives in mid-July. It really is a beautiful ship and I only wish we'd been at our favorite beach park when she sailed in a few days ago. Next time I'll be paying more attention to the arrivals.

Meanwhile, I read some fascinating quotes by Simón Bolívar himself, the man who is beloved by South America as the liberator from Spanish rule:

"A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability. "


"Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own. "


"Nations will march towards the apex of their greatness at the same pace as their education. Nations will soar if their education soars; they will regress if it regresses. Nations will fall and sink in darkness if education is corrupted or completely abandoned "


"The Ignorance the people live in leads them to commit mistakes against their own happiness "


"The United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty."


"To do something right it must be done twice. The first time instructs the second. "

It's easy to see why he's still well liked.

Crow up

This is one of those pictures my enigmatic friend Crow likes to send me from the distant past or the distant future - sometimes it's hard to know which but in this case he included a note to say they were flying over Manhattan. I'll leave it to you to decide when.

Meanwhile, here in Halifax as well as most everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere, spring arrived just yesterday and summer came today. Now that's what I call progress. Already 60° (15°C) before noon it's supposed to be 77° later today. We haven't lived here long enough to be experts on local weather patterns but it does seem a bit unusual to have it be so warm in March. Still, the arguments about global warming continue and, truth be told, it's a complicated subject especially in view of the fact that popular attitudes are polarized by markedly opposing views. (I'll take a pass on mentioning any opinions posed by the religious right.)

The debate between the scientific groups is based on the views of those who subscribe to two different theories. The first group believes that when mankind began changing the landscape by means of agriculture 11,700 years ago (conversely, some think it was the 18th Century when the Industrial Revolution began) we entered a new geological age called the Anthropocene - the Age of Man. The first few herds of cows probably didn't change the world by much, nor did the first steam engine, but I'm sure you've noticed we've come a long way since then The alternate scientific viewpoint is one proposed by paleontologists who say that in the long view (and it is a very long view) the world is a complex system that's gone through huge changes in climate over the course of millions of years. Even now we're essentially in a planetary holiday period between Ice Ages.

Earth's climate is unstable no matter what we believe the cause may be. What seems really weird is to aggravate the situation by digging up tar sands,  fracking gas deposits,  poisoning the waterways,  chopping off mountain tops, acidifying the oceans, and pouring tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. You might as well claim that because a forest fire was caused by lightning,  dumping planeloads of gasoline around its edges can't possibly do any harm.

Of course, you know all of this as well as I do and what I've wondered is why is it that people in positions of power continue doing those things that make the situation worse rather than plan a course adjustment? Then I read about Hagbard's Law (from a book called Illuminatus!) which states:

Information can only be communicated by equals, since in a hierarchy, those in inferior positions face very strong incentives to tell their superiors only what the superiors want to hear.

That explains it. In today's governments and corporations, the disconnect seems to be pretty much total.

Ah well, in view of the nice day I think I'll go out for a walk along the shore. It's always fun to see Crow land that thing. I hope it's a nice day where you are too.
♡

may the road rise up

He that is of the opinion that money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.

A nation's greatest enemy is the small minds of its small people.

Alcohol doesn’t solve any problem, but then neither does milk.

You can always burn that bridge when you come to it

A well balanced Irishman has a chip on both shoulders

If wars were fought with words Ireland would be ruling the world.

Forgive your enemy, but remember the bastard's name.

When all is said and done....more gets said than done.

May you be across Heaven's threshold before the old boy knows you're dead.

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, For thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Hebrews 13.2 (not an Irish saying, but it should be)

a moving lesson

Moving from one place to another is never easy but some moves are more challenging than others. A year and a half ago we moved from Portland, OR to Halifax, NS, a distance of nearly 4000 miles, where we thought we'd find a bucolic little town far away from the complications of modern life. I'm not sure anywhere is that far off the beaten track nowadays. Then again, some people only learn the hard way. If you'd like to know more there's a new Adventure called 'a dubious welcome'.

I tried to keep it brief but it's longer than most. Apologies with pictures on Adventure's Ink.
♡

friends to affinity

My friend Geraldine was already an excellent artist when we met in Vancouver many years ago. Amazingly adept at drawing, I'd be aghast when she threw away nearly completed illustrations that didn't meet her ideal, a habit that lead me to collecting several wonderful examples of her work from the trash bin in her room. Her art training, including a meticulous attention to detail I envied, had been honed in Ireland, a place that's quite synonymous to me with the word magic. Geraldine's artwork was always elementally whimsical, and very captivating.

She and her family returned to Southern Ireland at about the same time as I moved to the US with the result that although we didn't completely lose touch, there have often been long periods without much contact and I never got to see what she'd been painting and making. Just recently she emailed me some photographs of work she's done over the years. The one posted above came as quite a surprise since it's a painting of one of the world's little known famous female pirates (if such a term be allowed), Gráinne Ni Mháille,  Queen of Umaill and chieftan of the clan Ó Máille.

Also known as Grace O'Malley, her story reads like a wild adventure fiction but there's history as well as myth in the legend of the Irish noblewoman who led a band of 200 sea-raiders from the coast of Galway in the sixteenth century. Twice widowed, twice imprisoned, fighting her enemies both Irish and English for her rights,  she was condemned for piracy, and finally pardoned in London by Queen Elizabeth herself.  Gráinne was one of the few sea-raiders to retire from the sea and die in her own bed as an old, respected, and very rich woman. Geraldine's portrait of her captures the sea queen's power and determination most vividly.

Among the dozen or so images was a cryptic painting titled 'Sherrach'. It's a beautiful picture in colour and form, but not knowing what story Geraldine was referring to I decided to see if there was a definition to be found in the name. The only word that came close was a Scottish one meaning rumpus or a noisy squabble. The painting may not have anything to do with arguments but the clash between water and sky seemed a fit setting for the two beings sheltering from the tempest.

Like many artists Geraldine was never one to stick to a particular medium so it was great to see some of her sculptures. This one, called Con Gái (daughter in Vietnamese), was carved during an art for peace festival held in Hanoi more than a decade ago.

Then there's this little beauty that left me speechless. Nobody other than my dear friend Geraldine  could have envisioned this deeply aware yet innocent goddess.

Such is friendship that sometimes our best conversations contain no words at all.

♡ Erin go Bragh

hot fun in winter

The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

This morning I opened the balcony door to check for myself just how cold 20ºF  with 20mph winds would feel. It won't surprise you to learn it felt cold. Just as I was about to go back inside, one of Crow's passenger pigeon friends arrived (no, they're not extinct, just moved to the next dimension over from this one) with a video shot from a bird's eye perspective of Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval.

The first part shows what Rio looks like during the day from the overview he gets  from his hot air balloon lounge seat. If you watch carefully you'll notice a helicopter rescue of some swimmers who went a little too far into the surf. After that comes the real reason for the film and that's the Carnaval Parade that happens in Samba City every year on Fat Tuesday.

Crow asked me to tell you the movie was shot by a genius he met called Jarbas Agnelli, using a tilt shift camera. It's amazing.

I'm fine. Crow's fine. Tudo bem?
♡

city gardens

Like many other places in North America, winter as we usually experience it never quite arrived in Halifax this year. Yes, it's often been very cold but there was little snow and none of it lasted on the ground longer than a few days. Now that I know spring is lurking out there somewhere I've been doing my usual pining for a garden to plant things in. Living in an apartment isn't generally conducive to the cultivation of outdoor plants as an experience I had while living in Portland will testify. The dining area of that particular flat had some very large windows with enough hardware left by previous tenants that allowed me to hang up some extra shelves. Instead of filling those windows with the usual indoorsy plants, that year I brought home several boxes of young geraniums and marigolds that I planted in pots. Within a few weeks I had a fabulous display of flowers but hadn't reckoned on just how smelly those outdoor blooms would make our home.. especially when you have more than twenty of them. They had to go long before their intended time.

Anyway, that winter we got lucky - if you can call it being lucky when a new landlord decides to renovate the building, including your apartment, while you're still living there. The luck was in having a very fine townhouse nearby come unexpectedly available, which gave me (for the first time) a balcony not too high above the ground facing east. I spent the rest of the winter planning a garden. Winters in the Pacific NW don't last all that long so we were soon visiting one of the big nurseries where I swooned over the pictures of the flowers fastened on the bare root rose bushes and tried to figure out just how a large a bamboo would fit the space along with a small tree and several pots of pampas grass. I got a bit carried away that year - the roses were gorgeous at first but eventually blighted,  the bamboo died, and the pampas grass went into attack mode whenever we passed it.

Then came the day we saw a hummingbird and for the following six summers that garden was dedicated to our delight in seeing them. They seemed to enjoy examining us as well but it wasn't until late autumn one year that I caught the perfect picture. Several months later an eviction notice was delivered by new owners planning a condominium conversion and that was that for the garden.

I still think of gardening and all the people like me who simply have no access to seeing a little piece of Nature's magic unfold day by day. Just a few days ago I came across an article about the Beacon Food Forest project that has received the go ahead to plant Seattle's first permaculture garden in a city park. This spring a  seven acre plot of land will be planted with hundreds of different kinds of edibles: walnut and chestnut trees; blueberry and raspberry bushes; fruit trees; herbs; and more. It will be perennial and self-sustaining. Best of all, anyone who walks through will be free to take anything they want.


I'm guessing there may well be some happy hummingbirds living there too.
♡

slow cargo Crow

Hello everyone, Crow here. There's nothing more delightful than flying with a friend over the turquoise waters of the Caribbean in February. The islands are beautiful but on our way south I was disturbed to see several very large container vessels and three or four even larger bulk carriers. Having spent some time in Halifax with susan I've had the leisure to see a lot of cargo ships (they're not at all pretty) as well as study the issue of international haulage. Interestingly enough, serious container shipping only got started in the 1960s

When you see a container ship for the first time the sheer size can be very surprising. The largest of them range up to 400 meters long (437 yards) and 59 meters (64 yards) wide, comparable to 4 football fields in length. Even now, one of the biggest concerns about building large container ships is how they will make it around the world. One fun fact I came across was that Maersk, an important  Danish company,  introduced a ship so large that they were unable to fill it to capacity due to the weight and the water displacement in the sea near the ports. Had they filled it to capacity, the ship would have hit the sea floor.

Until recently reducing CO2 and sulphur dioxide emissions from the world's fleet of almost 90,000 large ships hasn't been much of a priority for governments or ship owners. Part of the problem is that the industry has grown so rapidly, now carrying more than 90% of the world's trade by volume, and has tripled its tonnage since 1970. The shift of so much production from the US and Europe to China and south Asia has meant cargoes have to travel a lot further.

They do this by burning the world's cheapest, most polluting 'bunker' fuel. Marine heavy fuel oil, which is burned by all large ships, is the residue produced by oil refineries and is so thick that when cold it can be walked on. Just 15 of biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all of the world's cars combined. Unsurprisingly, the stuff is very cheap so demand for it has been soaring as more of these huge ships are built every year. So far most shipping companies have refused to do anything to alleviate the problem because it would cut into their profits and shipping has slipped under the radar of regulators (I know, regulators..)

Then there's the fact the damn things sink a whole lot more often than any news stories ever tell anyone. (How many times does a ship sink? Once. - sorry) According to wiki answers one hundred large ships sink each year, and out of that number ten of them are container vessels or super tankers more than 200 meters in length. Right now, as you read this there are five or six million shipping containers on enormous cargo ships sailing across the world's oceans and about every hour, on average one of them is falling overboard. It's estimated that ten thousand large containers are lost at sea every year. If you've ever wondered why your favorite brand of cereal isn't on your supermarket shelf this might be an answer. It's strange to imagine that corn grown in the midwest could be shipped in bulk to China where it's turned into cornflakes, boxed, and sent back by container ship just in time for your breakfast.

Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea and there's more to learn if you just want to do a simple search. There are some interesting developments aimed at creating wind-powered cargo vessels. A British company called B9 Shipping is planning to build a fleet of ships that use wind and renewable energy. It could become a movement.

All in all, my favorite story involves a small group of people who set off from Plymouth today on a 19th century sailing ketch called Irene on what may turn into an historic and worthwhile venture. Their project, called New Dawn Traders, will sail for five months carrying organic beer from Devon to France, olive oil from Spain to Brazil and then (all being well) will bring cocoa, coffee, Amazonian super-foods, and rum from South America and the Caribbean back to England. Another drawback about container ships is that many ports can't accommodate them so lots of small places have lost all chance of trade.

Lucy Gilliam, a member of Irene's crew said before they set sail, "People aren't really aware of the damage these huge cargo ships are doing to the planet," she said. "There needs to be a great story to get a popular movement going. People are inspired by tall ships. There's something magical in seeing a tall ship in a harbour or at sea."

I think so too. My friend and I will be keeping a lookout for them. Meanwhile, another friend, Horace the homing pigeon, has agreed to carry this letter back to susan. If the trade winds prevent me answering your comments myself I'm sure she will help. After all, I have promised to bring back something very special from my journey to the South Seas - some warm sand.

Salutations to all ♡